For purposes of this discussion, a telephone network can be considered as being divided into two parts. The first part comprises everything from the telephone company leading up to and including the Central Office (CO) termination point in a subscriber's home or office. The second part comprises everything from the Central Office termination point and includes the individual telephone sets connected directly to this termination point as well as proprietary systems (Key/PBX) and their respective proprietary telephone sets.
Everything within the first part is regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and therefore has a standard to which telephone set and system manufacturers must base their interface equipment. This includes all devices connecting directly to the Central Office telephone network, including telephone sets and telephone systems. One problem that the telephony industry faces is that the other parts of the telephone network are not regulated, including anything related to the telephone sets which is not connected directly to the telephone network, such as proprietary telephone sets and all hand sets.
Private phones generally include a telephone base unit and modular accessories, such as a handset/headset. Accordingly, telephone manufacturers can and do develop independent interface systems between their telephone base units and accessories such as handsets/headsets. This often precludes the use of a different type of handset/headset with a particular base unit without manual reprogramming. The problem is especially apparent when dealing with Key and Private Branch Exchange (PBX) system station sets which are entirely proprietary in nature. Many manufacturers are providing accessories which are provided as original equipment with the base unit. Many of these accessory products provide both voice and data solutions not offered in the telephone station sets such as headset, teleconferencing, facsimile and modem communication alternatives.
What is needed is an invention that will allow a user to automatically calibrate a commercially available non-regulated voice/data product to allow an effective interface. This would solve any incompatibility problems and provide users with greater choices and flexibility when selecting telephone equipment.